Like the DA Trying to Protect Him, Butler Trial Ends in a Mistrial

Christopher Butler is accused of identity fraud, wire fraud, and embezzlement in the State of Mississippi v. Christopher Butler case. Here he testifying in District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith's trial earlier this year.
Photo by Imani Khayyam.

The three-day trial of Christopher Butler, who is accused of identity fraud, wire fraud and embezzlement that he allegedly committed during his work at a Mega Mattress in Jackson, ended in a mistrial on yesterday. The State argues that Butler falsified invoices for more than $500 to a Florida finance company and is being held on a $500,000 bond.

An archive of reporting on controversies surrounding Hinds County district attorneys, present and past.

Attorney Damon Stevenson interacted with Butler's family Wednesday morning as they waited for the jury to return. Stevenson is also representing Tramaury Barnes, whose video went viral on Facebook Live, showing a man he identified as the owner of Top Dollar Pawn Shop.

The accused claims that he is facing an "injustice" and does not know Smith, who visited him in jail and tried to give him a variety of assistance, including asking a Clarion-Ledger reporter to report Butler's side of the story, as one of the "political prisoners" he said the attorney general and Judge Weill were targeting as part of "fighting the DA."

"My constitutional rights and my civil right are being violated by the attorney general (sic) office and the Hinds County Justice Department," Butler wrote to Ward 3 City Councilman in May 2016. "I've been picked on and targeted by the A.G. office for information that I do not have." Butler promised in the letter that Smith has evidence that the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics has evidence that the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics framed him in a drug raid on his home, although Smith has not made clear evidence of a frame public.